To reduce plastic bag litter, China introduced a nationwide regulation requiring all retailers to charge for plastic shopping bags on 1 June 2008. By using the policy implementation as a natural experiment and collecting individual-level data before and after the implementation, we investigate the impacts of the regulation on consumers’ bag use. We find that the regulation implementation caused a 49 per cent reduction in the use of new bags.

In an attempt to control the environmental problems posed by plastic shopping bags, the South Africa government combined elements of regulation with a levy per bag, similar to that applied by the Irish.

Charging for bags commenced in May 2003 with a fixed nominal price of 46 rand cents for 24-l bags across all retailers, which was subsequently lowered. The levy charged had only short run success. Over time, the effectiveness of the levy has continued declining despite its comprehensive application at checkout points.

Cities in developing countries experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth too often lack the financial resources and institutional capacity to provide needed municipal infrastructure for adequate solid waste management, despite citizens’ demand for it.

This paper investigates the use of charges and standards in dealing with a common externality, plastic litter from shopping bags in Botswana. The country passed a plastic bag tax (effective 2007) to curb the plastic bag demand. Interestingly, the legislation did not force retailers to charge for plastic bags, which they did voluntarily at different prices.

This paper suggests that the initial sharp fall in use of bags was a result of loss aversion rooted in an endowment effect (the bags having long been a free good). Once consumers became accustomed to paying for bags, demand slowly rose to its historic levels.

This paper investigates the use of charges and standards in dealing with a common externality, plastic litter from shopping bags in Botswana. The country passed a plastic bag tax (effective 2007) to curb the plastic bag demand. Interestingly, the legislation did not force retailers to charge for plastic bags, which they did voluntarily at different prices.

We find, using survey-experimental methods, that most individuals are concerned with both relative income and relative consumption of particular goods. The degree of concern varies in the expected direction depending on the properties of the good.